


The Art Of Ignoring Your Crush Until It Drives Them Mad

by SaraPhoenix14



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Jack and Timothy are twins, Jack is bad at emotions, Jack isn't that big of an asshole, M/M, Not everything leads to sex, Rhys has a crush, Rhys is bad at keeping words in his mouth, Slow Build, The biggest assholes are Nisha and Wilhelm, some fluff eventually
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-09-02
Packaged: 2018-12-09 20:44:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11676744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaraPhoenix14/pseuds/SaraPhoenix14
Summary: It's always the start of the school year, right? When you first step into the building, take that first breath of sweaty (some even horny) teenagers and find out you just saw the most handsome man on this planet. And how else can you cope with having a highschool crush than ignoring the said person?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Here, have this generic Highschool AU no one asked for.
> 
> *realises halfway through the chapter how confusing the american educational system is so uses own instead*

The not-so excited voices of students boomed in front of the school's entrance, buses stopping and leaving soon after with kids scrambling out of them not to miss the first period. With as much will as possible, Rhys stepped out of the school bus, pushed aside by other nervous human beings. It was the first day of school, and Rhys' first time in this particular school after a rather uncomfortable move from his hometown because of his parents finding new jobs.

With a glance at the school's building, Rhys thought that it looked way worse than the one he grew up going to. There were kids already hiding in the back, trying to smoke something he couldn't quite identify. Yeah, Rhys really despised things like that. For some reason, he didn't like the idea of losing control over your own body. That's why he never want to come in contact with a street drug and drank alcohol only occasionally. Even then he was careful not to drink too much. But the point was, it didn't leave a good first impression on Rhys. Either way, he had to last the year there and he'd be damned if he'd spend it pitying other kids.

He pulled out the headphones from his eyes, realizing that the volume was loud enough you could hear some words coming out of them, and quickly turned off the music, looking around himself to see if he got any weird looks. Thankfully he avoided a morning anxiety attack, and carefullu put both his phone and the headphones into his bag while walking towards the entrance to the school. With an occasional bump or a push, he made it through the mass of students and found himself in a long hallway filled with students different ages, all standing or passing by the huge amount of lockers.

The interior of the school didn't look as bad as the exterior, but not by much. The lockers seemed old, and the walls had the occasional crack or two on them. Rhys realized that not everything has to be rainbows and sunshine, that maybe he was looking too deeply into the situation, and quickly tried to find a place where he could finally get his locker number, the code for it and any other necessities.

He had a few minutes to spare as he finally found his locker, which to be honest, he expexted to find it in a worse state. Either way, he had to remind himself to buy some baby wipes because that stain on the left side definitely looked fresh. He carefully placed his books inside, reminding himself to bring one to class so he wouldn't die of boredom. He placed the one he was currently reading on top so he wouldn't forget it, when he heard laughter coming from the end of the hallway, a few lockers away from him. His first thought was that he did something completely embarrassing without even knowing about it, that's why they were laughing. But he soon realized that that couldn't be the case, because he hasn't done anything besides opening his locker and putting his books inside. Either way, he couldn't help himself but to make sure he indeed didn't embarrass himself and took a (what he thought would be at first) quick glance.

But perhaps he should've chosen a more subtle approach to staring at the most beautiful man he's ever seen in his life. Call him cheesy, corny, whatever you want, but at that moment Rhys felt like he just found what he's been looking for in his whole life. And for the record, up until that point he called love at first sight bullshit.

It was the light smile on the boy's face that he caught the glimpse of at first. It was soft, something completely opposite of the boy's body features. He was tall, had the muscle, his hair was the perfect shade of brown and his eyes were mesmerising, one blue and other green. If Rhys just didn't have that one bit of self-control there, he might've drooled a bit.

But the moment of glory ended as fast as it came. Well, to put into a different perspective, as fast as someone ran into the door of his locker.

"Oh my god! My nose! Is it bleeding? Please say it's not bleeding!" the person said, lying on the floor, his hands covering his nose, his glasses on the floor next to his head.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to.. well, do that. You're uh, your nose is not bleeding." Rhys knelt down to the boy, not knowing how to help him. When he seemed to be ready to stand up, Rhys grabbed the glasses off the floor, giving them back to the boy and receiving a simple "Thanks".

"I'm really sorry about what happened."

"It's okay. Hey, your face is new. I haven't seen you around here before."

"Oh, uh. That's because it's is my first day here. I'm Rhys, by the way." He introduced himself to the boy, to which he replied: "I'm Vaughn. I heard some rumours about a new student, which honestly is a weird thing because who would want to study at this junk place?"

"I um.." Rhys looked around the hallway, nodding, "I see your point."

"Hold on a second, is that the book of "Doctor Crypto And His Family Of Skags" volume 2? I never thought I'd see another fan in my whole life."

"Yeah, I've been trying to re-read the books while waiting for the next movie and the book, I heard that his son will become the next villain, but it just makes no sense."

"I don't know, maybe they just want to throw people off? Have something really surprising in the end?" And with that, the two of them fell into a casual conversation about the franchise's theories, what they liked and hated about the characters and different things as blue and green eyes watched them leave the hallway.

"Looks like you got yourself a new lover-boy. Not the fastest time, but it's pretty close to last year."

"What?" Jack stared at the girl next to him, Nisha, who seemed to pick up on something he wasn't quite sure of. She chuckled softly, but before she had the chance to explain, his other friend, Wilhelm, said: "Don't tell me you didn't notice that boy looking all lovey-dovey here." He laughed, "Or maybe our Jackie over here has gone blind? What did you even do during summer?"

"He probably stared at the sun really hard, trying to convince it not to sunburn him."

Jack could only roll his eyes at the comments, ignoring them when he heard the bell finally ring. "Oh look, how convenient. Now I don't have to listen to you two shits for another 2 hours. See ya, kiddos!" He fingergunned his friends, laughing at the looks he received, and made his way to the homeroom, grateful that his classmates were dense enough to leave the seats in the back free.

He slumped into one of the seats, greeting his fellow classmates, trying his hardest not to scream his lungs out because school was back again, he has another 2 years to endure this hellhole and he just wanted to go home, sit on his couch, make some popcorn, binge watch shows on Netflix and be a huge geek in private.

But he couldn't do that, could he? Not if he wanted to graduate. And he knew damn well what not graduating would mean. He wouldn't be able to find a job, which meant he wouldn't have enough money to buy a subscription on Netflix, that's what it meant.

Jack pushed his thoughts away when a certain new student walked into the class, a smile stuck on his face as if he just heard the best joke in the entire world. So, the kid just so happened to have the same homeroom as him, neat. That meant he finally had someone new to tease, at least for the first half of the year until they'd realise Jack isn't as bad as he may seem. Jack watched the kid look around the classroom to in search for an empty seat. Unfortunately, the only seat left was in the front. Fortunately, Jack knew how to fix that little issue.

However, he couldn't do much because as soon as the kid sat down, the teacher decided to straddle into the classroom with that stupid scowl on his face. That was basically all Mr. Tassiter could do with his face, for anyone that didn't know.

"Calm down, all of you. As you may have noticed, the school year has officially started for all of you and I'd appreciate if it went smoothly, without any complications." Mr. Tassiter started his speech, which was basically the same one as last year, "Especially without what here, our dearest Tina, has demonstrated. I'm sure others have appreciated Spongebob's cameo during the prom, but need I remind you that Miss Hill from Biology has a rather unfortunate past with the cartoon character."

"Whaaat? How was I supposed to know that she'd scream "Me Hoy Minoy" three times and pass out? It's not like I planned that because she made me want to drop out of school five times last year." Tina joked, to which all of the class started chuckling. That soon stopped, however, when Mr Tassiter slapped his hand against the desk. "Behave yourself, Tina. You do not want to end up in detention on the first day."

"Is that a challenge?" She asked, but Mr Tassiter decided to completely ignore her question, instead his attention went to the new student that sat in the front. Rhys decided that he didn't like the look his new homeroom teacher gave him, and he'd rather avoid him from now on. "Ah, I see you successfully found your way into the school. Rhys, you'll have enough time to introduce yourself to your classmates during the school year. Now we have other, more important things to take care of."

Rhys sighed in relief, grateful that his teacher wasn't one of those that demanded introductions at the beginning of the school year. Maybe this school wasn't going to be bad as he thought.

"As you may have noticed, the principal has decided that you'll indeed have accounting this year. All of you. Which is a shame because I don't see any of you near a penny in the future." The class could only roll their eyes at the comment, Mr. Tassiter satisfied with the answer he received.

And the class went just like that, with Mr. Tassiter giving his students basic information about the school year, what will be new, he gave them their timetables, and they'd receive their books during the next lesson. Rhys was grateful the day was passing by quickly and without any trouble. However, he couldn't shake the feeling of people watching him. After all, it's not everyday you see someone rocking the Hyperion issued, fully functional prosthetic arm along with the implanted ECHOeye. Sometimes Rhys felt like a walking ad for the company.

His suspisions came true when he casually looked around the classroom, only to see a few people whisper something, trying to subtly point at him. Of course people would jump into conclusions, talking about Rhys behind his back instead of directly speaking to him. That's what he hated the most, those curious looks but no questions asked to clear the air of any misunderstanding.

But Rhys couldn't do anything about it, so he decided to ignore the whispers for the time being. He pushed his thoughts away when he heard the bell finally ringing, which meant that they had a short break before the next lesson started. He scanned his timetable once more, if only to make sure there weren't any mistakes in it. He soon realised that he'd have English four times a week, so he had something to look forward to. There was also other classes, for example Math, Econ, French or even Accounting that was mentioned before. However, Rhys never saw much interest in those subjects, but they were still better than having a Theater class, where he'd be force to speak despite his shyness towards strangers.

A sudden presence in front of him startled Rhys, a girl, probably one of his classmates, grabbed a chair and sat across Rhys on the other end of his desk. Her booming smile was the first thing Rhys noticed, her eyes fillew with excitement. "Hey, I'm Janey! Nice to meet you." She lightly waved her hand.

"I.. I'm Rhys."

"I know, Mr. Tassiter over there kind of already spilled the secret." She winked, chuckling, "Tell you what, I bet by the end of the day he's going to ask you to come with him for the books. Spoiler alert: He always asks the new students."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. And I don't think you're going to carry them all by yourself. No offense. I bet he's going to send with you either Maya, that blue haired girl, or maybe Aurelia, the one that looks like she could kick your ass with a wave of her finger." Rhys looked at the two girls, who seemed to be in deep conversations with their friends. "They seem to be on his good side, that's why he uses them as much as he can. Otherwise he hates everyone in this classroom."

"And here I thought it wouldn't be much worse than at my old school."

"You thought wrong!" Janey said with as much fake enthusiasm as she could, "this place is worse than the insides of a Rakk Hive."

The bell rang once again, indicating that the second lesson officially started and that Mr Tassiter would soon come back into the classroom. Janey looked at the door, then back at Rhys, smiling, "Well, I guess I should go back to my seat. I don't need another unnecessary speech from Mr. Tassiter. Good luck!"

Rhys had a small pout on his face when Janey left, but it quickly dissappeared when Mr. Tassiter entered the classroom, sporting his usual scowl. He didn't even get to his desk before point at Rhys. "I need you to come with me and grab the books."

Rhys let out a silent "Okay." and stood up from his desk, making his way over to the teacher. Mr. Tassiter opened the door with an order: "Wait outside, there's something else I have to take care of."

Rhys obligated, hearing the door close after he left the classroom. He waited quite some time, hearing only two muffled voices behind the door. With a sigh, he leaned against one of the lockers, his eyes boring an imaginary hole into the ground. Although he didn't mind spending some quality time alone in the hallway, it did get kind of boring after a while.

When the door finally opened, Rhys quickly glanced up, and he also quickly regretted it. You see, once Rhys realised what was even happening when he saw the unknown boy just an hour ago, he decided that he'd avoid him like the plague. Not only did he find himself to be stupid to have a highschool crush (he decided to call it that) on a boy that was totally ouf of his league, he also knew how much trouble he'd get himself into if he'd continue this for more than a day. But Lady Luck didn't want to side with him that day because there he was, his face probably already crimson red from the blush that was spreading on his face like wildfire, trying to avoid the boy's gaze.

"Nice arm."

"Huh? Oh, thanks." Rhys tried to say as casually as he could in this situation. Thankfully the boy didn't push any further, perhaps because Mr. Tassiter decided crash the scene, "Let's not waste any more time. You have knowledge to carry."

The boy rolled his eyes at the teacher, following him down the hallway while Rhys tried to recollect his emotions that would've bounced off the walls if you ripped him open. The boy said he liked his arm.

Rhys was already cursing himself for even thinking that he meant something more by that. Of course Rhys knew the arm would spike some interest sooner or later, hence the whispering in class earlier, he just didn't think people would be that interested in it. After all, it was an arm just like any other.

Rhys quickly realised that he's been caught up in his own thoughts again, so he walked a bit faster to catch up with the teacher. They soon came to a halt when they arrived at their destination, a small room filled up with books of different kinds, both old and new. "Take the first two stacks to the class and then come back for more."

Rhys hurriedly took the first stack, his foot already halfway out of the door when the boy stopped him with hid words: "Hey, wait up, I don't wanna look like a nerd alone."

With a heavy sigh, Rhys waited until he grabbed the books as well, refusing to even look at him because he knew he'd lose it and he wanted to be as far away as possible. Honestly, his emotions were starting to scare him a bit.

They walked down the hallway in silence, which Rhys was thankful for, but Jack on the other hand.. not so much. It's been what, 20 minutes and the kid, Rhys, hasn't said a word. At first Jack thought that maybe he didn't talk much, but this was getting ridiculous. He needed to try something, the silence was killing him. Like seriously, who doesn't tall for more than 20 minutes? No one, that's the problem.

"That arm of yours, does it do any cool things?" Jack asked out of nowhere, but Rhys remained silent all throughout the question. Rolling his eyes, Jack tried once again: "Can you like, punch people really hard? Can your fist shoot out of your wrist? Or maybe it shoots a laser beam?"

"No, no and no."

"Huh, shame. 'Cause that would be friggin cool." Jack said, hoping that this conversation would lead further. They were already on their way back to get more books when Jack asked: "Okay kiddo, I'm dying of curiosity here. Can it do anything cool?"

"Nope."

"Goddammit." Jack silently cursed so Rhys wouldn't hear him. Even if he did, he wouldn't even comment on it, Jack knew that much. And it went on like that for the next half an hour. Jack trying to make the boy talk, Rhys only giving him one worded answers. Questions like "Is the arm heavy to carry around?", "How did you get it?", "Do you like it here?", "Did you know we have a fully functional robot here that talks? He's kind of annoying actually.", "Are you ever going to give me an answer that includes more than one word?" were just a few amongst dozen more. At the end Rhys thought his head was going to fall off his neck because of just looking forward and trying his hardest not to give in and talk to the boy. He didn't even know the boy's name, and he insisted to let it stay that way to keep himself from trouble.

When the books were finally given to the students, it was time for Mr. Tassiter to let the students go home early. After all, there wasn't anything they could do with most of the teachers busy with their respective classes. Rhys hurriedly grabbed his books and tried to push himself out of the classroom when he heard someone calling his name. Not someone, it was the boy.

"Hey, you need help?" Rhys heard Janey, who instantly linked their arms with a wink in his direction, dragging him out of the school in a hurry. At that moment Rhys was so grateful, he thought Janey was sent to his aid by the angels. When they were finally out of the school and the coast was clear, Rhys could only let out: "Thank you, thank you, million times thank you."

"Who's this?" A girl asked, pushing her short purple hair out of the way, Janey already standing by her side.

"Oh, this is my friend."

"Another one?" The girl asked with disbelief, as if you couldn't have more than one friend... or more than 20 of them. Janey let out a soft giggle before introducing the two. "Athena, this is Rhys. Rhys, this is Athena, my girlfriend."

"Why the red face?" Athena asked, to which Rhys could only hide it with his hands. "Oh my god, is it that obvious?"

"What did the two of you even do when you were getting the books? Some girls were already placing bets. Not that I wanted to join them or anything, I'm just curious." Janey said, patting Rhys' shoulder to try to comfort him.

"H-he was asking me all these questions and I just.. I couldn't answer him because I'm a loser."

"Wait, who are we talking about again?" Athena asked.

"Jack." Janey looked at Rhys, who was still trying to hide his face. But when he heard that name, his stomach did a 360 degree flip. At that moment he decided to hate that name for the rest of his life, because hate is stronger than some stupid crush.

"Huh, so you survived Hurricane Jack. You don't see that everyday. Just a tip though, next time you should try to avoid him at all cost." Athena said, to which Rhys could only let out a quiet "I'm trying." while she continued, "He does this every year. Picks a new kid to tease and won't stop until god knows when. Even if you do come in contact with him, be careful."

Rhys nodded, the advice sinking into his head. Yeah, that's what he was going to do. Avoid Jack at all costs, slam his heart into a dumpster so he would get rid of his emotions, hide in his room and wallow in self-pity. Good plan, great plan.


	2. Chapter 2

The second day of school came unexpectedly fast, at least Rhys thought so. At first, he got up from the bed in a good mood, already hungry for his favorite cereal Captain Scarlett and her Crunchy Booty. It was a rip-off of Captain Crunch, except it was better. Or at least Rhys thought so.

He quickly ate his breakfast, grabbed his backpack and took the bus straight to the school. Not literally, it stopped at the parking lot.

The first three periods passed quickly to his surprise, maybe because he was already used to the routine of Maths and English and he didn't have any problems with Econ. However, the next one was supposed to be Accounting. Which to be honest, he didn't expect to have when coming to this school. He's heard pretty bad things about it and if it turned out to be as bad as people told him, he'd be relieved to pass through the year.

He managed to get to the class before the bell rang, noticing that there were only a few seats left. Some in the front and one next to a certain person Rhys was avoiding. "The front it is, then." Rhys thought to himself, taking his seat as fast as possible without Jack noticing him. Unfortunately Janey wasn't in his group to save him from the disaster, damn him for choosing French instead of German.

It felt like eternity until the teacher finally came into the classroom, minutes after the bell rang. And all the while Rhys tried to keep his head low but he couldn't shake off the feeling of someone watching him. He had his suspisions, he just wasn't brave enough to check. But he felt relief wash over him when the doors finally opened and the teacher walked in. It was an older lady, in her 50's, but didn't look as scary and menacing as Mr. Tassiter. "Sorry for the long wait, some girl thought it would be funny to throw a fake skeleton down the stairs... It was. It hit Miss Hill directly on her head." The class let out a few chuckles.

"Anyways, my name is Mrs. West, I'll be your teacher for this class for the next two years. I just want to point out, whatever any of your friends from the higher grade have told you, it's true. All throughout this year you'll be at the edge of your seat, you won't understand a thing and you won't have any idea if you are capable of understanding it or not. You're only going to learn the basics, and since our amazing educational system only allowed me to have 2 years of this class, we're going to sky-rocket through this. By the end of it you're only going to remember 10% of the whole thing, got it? Any questions?"

Someone from the back hesitantly raised their hand, "Based on what you just told us, what grades do you expect us to have at the end of the year?"

"Well, if any of you have the brains for Maths and understanding something without even trying to, I'm guessing they're going to be average or even below that. Next question."

"How can we use this in real life?"

"I don't know, how can you? I'm pretty sure none of you want to have your money stolen by your future boss, or maybe I'm wrong?" Mrs. West looked around the classroom before continuing, "This is a good opportunity to learn about what happens in a company regarding money and everything connected to it." Her answers were as straightforward as they could get, Rhys noticed. Throughout the whole lesson the class seemed keen on asking different questions about the subject, with Mrs. West kind enough to answer most of them. However, when she was answering one of Maya's questions, some of Rhys' classmates in the back got bored and decided to talk to each other instead.

"Is there a different topic you'd like to talk about, boys?" Mrs. West looked at the group. The boys didn't notice at first, oblivious to the unwanted attention. However, when everyone from the class looked at them, they were bound to find out out they were caught.

"Uh... What? I didn't hear the question." One of them said, and of course it had to be him. Rhys rolled his eyes, turning around in his seat so he was facing the teacher again. He busied himself with watching the clock slowly tick while the teacher talked to Jack, "I asked if you'd rather have the whole class discuss whatever you three were talking about, since it must be more important than Maya's question."

"I'd.. we'd rather not. It's stupid." Jack mumbled, "sorry for interrupting you."

"What's your name?"

"Jack Lawrence."

"Lawrence? Twin brother of Timothy Lawrence?" Mrs. West asked, smiling like she just heard the best news in the entire world, "I thought you looked familiar. My sister teaches him English at his school. How come you two don't go to the same one?"

"We basically hate each other. Plus our parents are divorced, so there's that. I couldn't care less about him." Jack said, as if it was the most casual thing. For some reason Rhys felt pity for the boy. He didn't know why, he just did. He wasn't in a similar situation, never has been and he's pretty happy about it. But hearing about a situation like that made Rhys think. He didn't like listening to rumours but if what Janey and Athena had told him about Jack, it meant that his actions had to come from somewhere deep in him, that maybe he was just trying to suppress his feelings about his family and instead was doing more harm than good to people around him just to distract himself.

But that was all just a theory Rhys thought of, so none of that had to apply to what was next to him. Wait, when did Jack sit down next to him?? "Heya cupcake, whatcha doin'?"

"Jack, I didn't send you there to start another discussion. Whatever it is you want from Rhys can wait." Mrs. West narrowed her eyes at Jack, who for some reason couldn't take his off Rhys face, so the only option for Rhys was to stare at the clock. Only ten minutes left, that wasn't that bad. As soon as the bell would ring, Rhys would book it, get lost in the crowd and go straight to his next class. Yeah, that sounded like a solid plan.

It was just five minutes now, five more minutes and he'd be able to get away. Unfortunately Rhys forgot after a moment why he was so intently studying the clock, and he made the mistake of looking somewhere else. Particularly to his right, where Jack sat, his head resting on his hands, pleased with the view he had on Rhys. Or maybe he was looking at something else?

Nope, he was most definitely staring at Rhys this whole time.

Rhys quickly turned his head the other way, the blush on his face now obvious to the knowing eye. Just a minute and he won't have to suffer. Just 40 seconds. Only 30 more. Almost there.

"Oh thank god." Rhys whispered to himself, immediately grabbing his belongings and pushing past his classmates to be out of the room as soon as possible. His hopes went sky-high when he made it to the hallway in one piece. Although his plan was to get to the next lesson, he hasn't bothered to actually look on his timetable where he was supposed or what the lesson was for that matter.

Rhys stopped near the lockers, taking out the timetable from his bag. Ah yes, torture class. Or officially known as Physical Education. Least favorite class of all time for Rhys. If it was going to be as bad as at his old school, Rhys was surely in for a great time.

Surprisingly, the class wasn't as bad. Maybe, just maybe it was because Rhys didn't have to endure Jack the whole time. However, he was supposed to be in this class, too. Rhys noticed that they shared the lesson with another class, finding that a bit strange. However, there weren't that many boys in the two classes, so it was probably ordinary to have one group instead of two.

One of Jack's friends, Wilhelm (Rhys found out after he hit him on his head with a ball), was in the group as well. Wilhelm kept giving him looks, and Rhys had to remind himself that it was just the metal arm on his side that gained the unwanted attention, not him. However, he did notice that Wilhelm was acting a bit more violent than everyone else during the friendly game of dodgeball. Maybe he didn't actually hear the word friendly?

Either way, no one was surprised when Wilhelm threw the ball too hard and some kid had to leave the class to see the nurse. The class ended soon afterwards, and Rhys had one last lesson to attend before going home.

He met Vaughn during the short break, who introduced him to Yvette, his classmate. The two of them quickly got along after Yvette told him stories about how Vaughn tried to hit on her during the first year and made a fool of himself more times than she could count on her hand. Of course, Vaughn refused to comment on the topic, the memories of him accidentally buying Yvette flowers she was allergic to still fresh in his mind. But he did admit that he soon realised Yvette simply wasn't interested, so he moved on.

Now, they were just friends minding their own business, meeting other people and hanging out when the time was right. Vaughn suggested that Rhys would join them this weekend, they wanted to see the new Doctor Crypto movie. Of course Rhys has planned on going to the premiere on Friday, but now that he at least had someone to go with, he decided it didn't really matter when he'd see the movie.

And so, there he was, waiting for his new friends in front of the cinema, his jacket loosely hanging on his shoulder because it was too hot outside and he didn't check the weather earlier. He was surprised that he was the first one to arrive, for some reason he thought Vaughn would be the kind of person to get everywhere a little too early.

It was 20 minutes before the movie when Yvette arrived, her smile something Rhys could spot even down the busy street. "Hey, nice look you got going there. Trying to pick someone up to join us?"

"Uh, what? No... that's not.."

"I'm just joking Rhys. Calm down." Yvette patted him on his flesh arm. Rhys could only let out an "Oh." before Yvette asked, "Where's Vaughn, by the way?"

"I got a text from him 2 minutes ago, said he's going to be here soon." Rhys took out his phone, going over the text one more time. The two of them decided to wait inside ths building, Rhys glad that it wasn't as hot inside as it was outside.

"I have to admit, I haven't actually read the books. Vaughn tried to hook me up but I don't usually read. Is there something I should be aware of?" Yvette said, looking at the poster of the movie, Rhys standing next to her. He put his finger on his lower lip, deep in thought. "I can't think of anything on the top of my head. The book was alright, but I'm not going to spoil anything for you. I'm not the type of person to bash someone for not reading the books."

"That's a relief."

"But I am that kind of person. Seriously, how can you not read the books? They're always better than the movies!" Vaughn judged from behind his friends, his sudden appearance startling the two of them. "You ready to go, guys? The movie will start soon."

"Yeah, I can go get the tickets. You guys buy popcorn or something." Rhys suggested, the other two handing him the money for the tickets. The line wasn't as long as Rhys thought it'd be, there were several other movies already playing so maybe that was why. It was almost his turn to buy the tickets when one of the movies ended and people scattered out into the lobby. Rhys caught a sight of the group he knew well by now, Wilhem sporting a smirk while Nisha and Jack laughed like they were mad. "Oh god that ending was priceless, I'll never forget the sight of that."

"Yeah, the kid was bound to fall off. I just didn't know he'd get eaten by a sand whale." Rhys heard Nisha comment, several groans of disappointment coming from the crowd. Rhys took a look at the big TV screen above the entrance, relief washing over him when he noticed they went to some movie called Truxican Standoff. He didn't want to have his movie spoiled minutes before watching it.

"Three tickets for the new Doctor Crypto movie, please." Rhys politely asked the boy standing behind the counter, taking out his wallet to pay for them. He picked the seats in the middle, thankful that there were just three left there. The cashier handed him the tickets but before Rhys had the chance to join his friends in the line for snack, a hand on his shoulder stopped him. "Rhys! Didn't expect to see you here, pumpkin. Seeing a movie with someone?"

Rhys turned around, thankful that Jack wasn't paying attention to him but Rhys' friends who were giving them a weird look from the line to the snacks, as if they were pitying him.

And okay, he could see exactly why. The whole week Rhys has been desperately trying to avoid Jack like the plague, even going as far as sitting opposite of him during lessons, hiding in a bathroom stall whenever he saw him in the hallway, or even faking a really bad fall during P.E. just so he could see the nurse instead of Jack. But the guy was persistent, alright. Whenever Rhys would sit in the front, Jack would purposely annoy the teacher so they'd send him next to Rhys, and that time he wanted to see the nurse? Jack insisted on going with him because "he's new, he doesn't know the place that well yet".

Sometimes Rhys wondered what was running through the boys head, if this was part of his menacing plan on making the two last years of school for Rhys a living hell. A part of him thought about the possibility that that wasn't the case, but he knew he sounded ridiculous. It was Athena's words that discouraged him from thinking that way.

"You there?" Jack snapped his fingers in front of Rhys, a bit too close to his face. "Earth to Rhys, I didn't hypnotize you with my looks, did I?" Rhys blinked once, twice, but for some reason Jack's words went in and out of his head. When Rhys finally seemed to, well, not be spaced out, he let out, "Sorry, you startled me. I uh... I have to go."

"Alright," Jack smiled at Rhys, that smile that Rhys hated and adored at the same time, "I'll see you at school."

Before Rhys could say anything, which he was obviously not planning on doing, Jack left him with a light squeeze of his shoulder, joining his friends who were already waiting for him outside the building.

"Rhys, are you okay?" He heard Yvette asked, dragging him by his arm away from the counter.

"No."

"Oh."

"Let's just forget about it and watch the movie." Vaughn suggested, to which they agreed. Honestly, Rhys was grateful that they didn't ask about the situation. Maybe they saw how lost Rhys was and thought that he couldn't exactly explain it, which was the case. Either way, he just wanted to get Jack out of his head and watch the goddamn movie.

Which turned out to be impossible. He kept thinking about the smile, about the way Jack looked at him during lessons, about the way Jack's hand felt on him and how he left it there just a bit too long. The screen in front of him looked like it played the same bits on loop, Rhys' eyes looking forward but not paying any attention to the movie. His mind was filled with Jack and Jack only. And honestly, he didn't know if he hated Jack or himself more for ruining his movie-experience. He'd have to watch the movie again sometime. In the end however, he decuded that he didn't exactly know what he felt towards Jack. The boy was making him feel all kinds of emotions and it was confusing the hell out of Rhys. He had to talk about it with someone, because he had no idea what to do and with each day he was growing tired of the failed attempts on ignoring Jack.

When he got back home, feeling like shit for not paying any attention to a movie he paid so much for, he grabbed his small computer off the desk and sat on his bed, looking through contacts on Skype.

"Hey."

"Hey yourself, took you long enough to call. Fiona thought you got hit by a bus." Rhys smiled at the girl on the screen, spotting her sister sitting behind her on the bed. "Seriously, why didn't you call sooner? We were worried."

"Sorry, I kind of... maybe.. forgot?" Rhys tried to say without sounding like an asshole. With a scoff, Fiona walked towards her sister to sit next to her, "Could've at least said you didn't have time. Looks like you're still an idiot."

"Yeah, about that. I need your help."

"What? Already got a crush on someone and you need our relationship advice?" Fiona joked. It got silent for a bit, but then Rhys could hear a silent, "Dammit."

"Ha, I win." Fiona exclaimed, taking a 5 dollar bill out of Sasha's hand with that grin that screamed 'victory'. "Seriously? You made bets?!"

"Yeah?"

"I can't believe I used to be friends with you."

"Used to? You're a few hours away from, if we wanted to we'd come and kick your door down tonight." Sasha said, with that fake serious tone she used at school to manipulate the teachers into giving her a better grade. "Okay, how bad is it?"

"Worse than Axton crushing on Fiona two years ago." Rhys sighed, his head hitting the wall behind him. He stared at the ceiling for a few seconds, the question from one of the sisters just an echo in his room. "That bad?"

"He's just... ugh."

"So it's a guy." Fiona remarked, to which Rhys could only nod. His head was already buried in his hands, he couldn't bear to look at his friends, they've never seen him this embarrassed.

"So, how did you two meet?"

"It wasn't exactly meeting, more like me seeing him at school. It sounds ridiculous.... I sound ridiculous." Rhys rubbed at his forehead, trying to collect his thoughts so he could explain the situation to the girls as best as he could, "I was looking through my locker when I heard him laugh at something with his friends. I thought they were laughing at me, because you know, I'm a loser or whatever. So my first instinct was to look at him and his friends and I saw a goddamn angel. I know I sound pathetic but it's true. I felt like my legs would give up if I stared for any longer. Thankfully he didn't notice... or at least I think so."

"That sounds really vague, can you give us some details?"

"Oh, I don't know. He's a bit taller than me, but not by much, but if you'd compare the two of us he's like a tower. His arms are something I'd love to have around me, his smile is perfect, his hair is this shade of brown you don't see everyday, his eyes are something I got lost in a few times, and honestly I hate him so much."

"Wait.. hate?" Sasha asked with disbelief, "Fi, give me my money back!"

"Keep the money Fiona, that was just my personal comment." Rhys stopped the two sisters before they could fight over some dollars. "So, do you like him or hate him?" Fiona asked.

"Both, I guess."

"You guess?"

"You know exactly what I mean. I didn't want to get involved in high school dating because of how many times it ends up badly when school finishes. So what am I supposed to do?"

"Have you tried ignoring him?" asked Fiona, to which Rhys could only roll his eyes, "I've been kind of trying to do that already."

"And?"

"And I think he knows something is up. He's been trying to get me to talk this whole week. Like, seriously. We have classes together so I sit in the front when he sits in the back, but then the teacher makes him sit in the front, right next to me. It's like he has this whole evil plan on how to ruin my school life."

"Or maybe he's just trying to talk to you. Wants to make sure that you don't ignore him when he asks you out." Sasha suggested, but Rhys could only laugh at how ridiculous that sounded, "Yeah, like that would ever happen."

"I don't know. You should give him a chance. See what's his deal."

"Alright." Rhys simply responded to his friends. They talked for a bit after that, the girls filling him in on all the gossip at his old school, Rhys telling them about the new one and all the people he's met. They eventually end the call when Rhys realises that it's pretty late, even if it was Saturday. He quickly turns off the computer, changing into pyjamas and flopping down on the bed. He slowly drifted off to sleep, hoping that tomorrow would be a relatively calm day so he could collect his thoughts on how to approach Jack on Monday.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry if this chapter is different from the previous one. I feel like this is kind of rushed, I don't know. I also apologise that I haven't updated this story for so long, I've been trying to write all this time but all that I wrote felt like nonsense to me. Fortunately, I've already began writing the next chapter, which will have more interaction between Jack and Rhys.
> 
> Also, it will be very cheesy.
> 
> But don't blame me, I live for cheesy fanfictions. There's not enough of them out there.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What are you doing Rhys
> 
> This isn't what we agreed to
> 
> You'll regret it later Rhys

Sunday definitely seemed like a lazy day to Rhys. His homework was finished, his room was relatively clean and he had the whole house to himself because his parents were visiting his aunt or something. So he decided to chill in the backyard, book in hand, legs crossed as he sat on one of the wooden chairs, strawberry smoothie already finished and the remains of it on the table. Rhys definitely didn't regret being outside on this kind of day, where the sun wasn't as unbearable and he could enjoy the day in peace and quiet.

That is until his neighbor decided to use his garden as well, several people talking and laughing about things Rhys couldn't care less about. He groaned, shifting his legs and turning the page so he could get to the next chapter. The sound of leaves softly bumping into each other in the gentle wind was drowned out by a conversation coming from the neighbours place, with Rhys unable to focus on the words in front of him. He grabbed his phone, plugging in the headphones and playing some calm, acoustic guitar playlist so he'd tune out the voices.

It worked, at least for a while, until he heard a sharp "Oh shit." and felt something fly into him. Like, directly to his face. It didn't hurt that much though.

"And here we can see a wild Nerd, resting in his natural habitat. Usually they don't come outside very often, but this one must be an exception to the breed."

Rhys looked around himself, spotting a red frisbee lying on the grass. He hesitantly put his book in his lap and picked the frisbee up, wondering where exactly it could come from.

"He's noticed the bait. I repeat, he's noticed the bait. Now we wait. Let's hope he doesn't take it back to its den."

Rhys turned around, finally spotting the trio of assholes (to be clear, it was Jack, Nisha and Wilhelm) standing just tall enough so they could peek from behind the fence. He narrowed his eyes at them, perfectly throwing the frisbee at them with his metal arm. "I'd prefer the term geek, thank you very much."

"Oh, so it talks. Extraordinary." Jack said with his fake British accent, catching the frisbee before it could hit him. He gave it to you Nisha, who dissappeared behind the fence along with Wilhelm. Rhys turned back around, taking the book from his lap so he could continue reading it.

"So, whatcha reading, geek?" Jack asked, but Rhys couldn't bother answering, his mind already occupied by the words in the book. When it didn't look like Rhys was going to say a word, Jack sighed heavily.

And then he sighed again.

"Do you need something, Jack?" Rhys asked without even taking one look at the boy. And here he thought he'd have one day without facing Jack. Why does life have to be so cruel?

"Oh, not really." Jack smiled, proud of himself that he finally gained Rhys' attention. "Just thought that we could have a little chit-chat. You know, you 'n me." Rhys put the book back in his lap, sitting sideways on the chair so he could face Jack. "Well, what do you want to talk about?"

"Oh, I dunno. The weather? School? You avoiding me?"

"I'm not avoid-"

"Sure, you keep telling yourself that. But I can see right through you." Jack pointed right at Rhys, a menacing smile plastered on his face. But that quickly changed when he noticed the frown on Rhys, "Whatever your friends told you, it's not true. I want to be best buds with you!"

"Really?" Rhys more said than asked, not actually believing Jack because haha, who would want to be best friends with Rhys.

"Yup."

"Great."

"So, how about we start again." Jack said before disappearing behind the fence and jumping back up, "Hi, I'm Jack. What's your name?"

"Rhys." he hesitantly answered. Jack's smile only grew wider, realizing that his comeback was working, "Rhys, that's a really nice name. Now, do you want to join us? We were about to summon a demon in Nisha's backyard."

"Please don't tell me you're serious."

"You? One hundred percent. The demon? Not really, depends if you're up for it." Jack giggled at his innuendo. Of course, Rhys had no idea, so he could only raise his eyebrow at the boy. "Come on, it'll be fun."

"I'd love to bu-"

"Great! Nisha is going to be so happy. Between you and me, I'm pretty sure she has a crush on you. I could be wrong though, you'll have to find out yourself." He winked at Rhys, who was at this point contemplating hiding in his house or straight up running away. Unfortunately, he couldn't do neither now that Jack was expecting him on the other side of the fence.

Yeah, Jack was expecting him on the other side.

"Did you really just use me as a cover to get into the kid's pants?" Nisha accused her friend, standing just a few feet away with the frisbee in her hand. With a scoff, Jack looked at her with fake hurt written all over his features, "What? Nish, you should know me better than that."

"You used me as a cover to get into Nisha's pants last year." Wilhelm commented, which earned him a betrayed glance from Jack, "Yeah, but that was once. And besides, it didn't even work!"

"So now you're trying it again. What, you think it'll work this time, cowboy?" Nisha laughed, remembering how bad it ended for Jack that time. Jack groaned at the memory, looking at his friends, "I'm not- you guys are assholes, did I ever tell you that?"

"Whatever you say, Jackie. Just keep it in your pants." Wilhelm snickered before Rhys came into the view. "Rhysie! Welcome!"

"Rhysie." Nisha mouthed at Wilhelm, who seemed just as entertained by the situation as her.

"Where's the candles?" Rhys questioned the group. They all seemed puzzled by his question, until he clarified it by saying, "You know, for the demon, or something."

"Oh, yeah. Jack here already did the summoning. He just didn't exactly get a demon." Nisha threw a knowing look at Jack, biting her lips to keep herself from laughing. Jack narrowed his eyes at the girl, thinking of ways how to make her pay for this later. He quickly glanced at Rhys, who seemed to feel awkward between the three friends. Poor guy probably felt left out.

"Ignore her, she's just messing with you." Rhys heard Jack. He looked towards Nisha, who had a playful smirk on her face. She definitely looked like someone Rhys didn't want to mess with.

"By the way, how's your knee?"

"Huh?" Rhys stared at Jack, eyebrows furrowed from confusion until he realized what he meant. "Oh, it's alright I guess."

"Jack, I'd be more concerned about the head if I were you." By this point Jack was glaring daggers at his friends, who were acting like complete idiots. However, that soon changed when Rhys cleared the air of any confusion... or at least tried to, "He kind of hit me in the head three or four times during P.E."

"He.. what?"

"We played dodgeball." Wilhelm clarified, to which Rhys could only add "It was fun." It didn't make Jack feel any easier, if only worry more about Wilhelm and his sudden outbursts and Rhys being the victim.

"You should've been there. Where were you, by the way?" Wilhelm asked him. Jack thought about answering him honestly, but he didn't want to bring up the topic. At least not in front of Rhys. "Oh, you know. The usual."

"Right." Nisha seemed to pick up on what he meant, successfully changing the subject to something more light, "So, Rhys, how do you like our school?"

"It's alright." He answered, but Jack already knew where this was going. He held back a groan, having a small bit of faith that she wasn't going to ask the question, "Got your eye on someone special?" And there was that wink. This woman never knew when to stop. "Nisha."

"What? I'm just asking."

"To answer your question, I don't really know." Rhys said, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck. He didn't know? What was that supposed to mean? For some reason, Jack wasn't very satisfied with that answer.

"That's completely okay, you have plenty of time to figure it out. Right, Jack?" She looked towards him, and honestly all Jack wanted at the moment was kick her ass because well, she was being an ass. Just because the kid caught his interest with his at first strange behaviour didn't mea he wanted to get in his pants. Unfortunately, Nisha's hormones didn't help her at all, and so she obviously had to imagine things.

"Right..." Jack answered, fighting the urge to roll his eyes, "By the way, I didn't get an answer. What were you reading earlier?" He asked in hopes to change the topic.

"Oh, it was the fourth Doctor Crypto book, I was just finishing it."

"Wait, didn't you and the two other kids go to a Doctor Crypto movie yesterday? How was it?" There was a light pout on Rhys' face when Jack asked the question, he wondered why. "It was alright, I guess."

The trio gave him strange looks, but he quickly saved himself by asking, "What movie did you see?"

"The Truxican Standoff." Nisha answered. "My favorite part was when they killed the wrong person at the beginning." Wilhelm added.

"Hey, watch out for the spoilers. I fell asleep at the beginning." Jack playfully argued with his friends, Nisha adding: "Oh yeah, I thought you'd start drooling."

"I don't drool."

"No, you don't." Wilhelm commented, his two friends giggling like idiots, joined by Rhys.

The boy seemed at ease from that point, engaging in their conversations here and there, which made Jack happy because honestly, the last time someone had to endure the disaster that was Jack's group of friends, they haven't had a chance to say a word. Rhys was different. At first, Jack thought that he was one of those shy kids that didn't really talk, but he had no problem talking to Janey, or Athena, or those two other kids.

So Jack set it as his mission to figure out why Rhys didn't want to talk to him... at least at school. It really confused him how all of a sudden they were having a normal conversation. Or as normal as it could be. He didn't know why the boy avoided his gaze whenever he looked at him, why he never explicitly talked to him. It was something Jack wondered about even when he got home that evening. Why was Rhys acting like that?

He didn't like to be the one to overthink about things, he rarely wanted to deal with thoughts about people. Maybe it was his way of coping. He just didn't think it was important, not after his parents' divorce and what happened between him and his brother two years ago.

They used to be best friends, the twin duo. Jack and Tim, you'd think they'd be a stereotype, one in love with learning, the other a sports fanatic. It wasn't quite like that, both of them were pretty lazy, but smart in their own ways, one cocky but the other diffident. But they made it work, helped each other throughtout their childhood and later. But then it hit them like an earthquake, something they weren't exactly expecting.

At first they thought nothing of it, that it was their parents' choice. But having your parents plan a divorce does a thing to you and you start overthinking. That maybe it's you, maybe it's your fault. And so they fought, with fists and with words. The worse fight happened at school, just as the year started. The divorce was supposed to happen in a week, but by that point the two of them grew to detest each other.

Then it all crashed down, his father moved away along with Tim and Jack stayed behind with his mother. Neither of them try to contact each other and Jack hopes it'll stay that way for a long time.

Speaking of time, Jack didn't even realize that it was already well past midnight. He couldn't bring himself to sleep, something that had to do with too many thoughts running through his head. He thought about watching something on Netflix, but there really wasn't anything interesting and he'd rather watch something when not half-asleep.

He grabbed his phone from the bedside table, unlocking it and going over to the contacts. He thought about calling Nisha, or maybe Wilhelm, or maybe the pizza house. But he immediately stopped at the first contact. Hey, even Jack was surprised he managed to get the kid's number. He opened the messaging app, adding Rhys' contact on and sending a new message.

_J: hey_

Jack waited a few minutes, furrowing his eyebrows when he didn't get a reply. He tried again.

_J: hey_  
_J: hey listen_  
_J: Rhys_  
_J: hey_

This time, he got a response almost immediately.

**R: what**  
**R: why do you sound like Navi**

_J: I thought you wouldn't get the reference_  
_J: anyways_  
_J: wyd_

**R: I was kind of sleeping**

Jack scoffed, turning on his side. He quietly laughed at his innuendo before hitting send.

_J: sleeping? There's so many other things you could be doing right now_

**R: it's almost 2 am**  
**R: I have school tomorrow**  
**R: so do you**

_J: way to rub it in my face geez_  
_J: and here I thought we could hang out_

**R: I'm not going outside at 2 am**

_J: :'(_  
_J: but I'm boreeeeed_

**R: go to sleep**

_J: what if I like sneak into your house_  
_J: that way you don't have to go outside_

Jack stood up from his bed, leaving the phone behind on his bed. He looked outside the window, it was raining pretty heavily outside. Guess he was going nowhere in that kind of weather. He heard the phone softly beep on the bed, indicating that he got exactly three new messages. He laid back in his bed, unlocking the phone once again.

**R: please don't do that**  
**R: Jack**  
**R: JACK DON'T**

_J: I was just messing with you_  
_J: it's raining outside so it's a big fat no from me_

It took a while until Jack got a response from Rhys. He locked and unlocked his phone a few times, hoping that a new notification would appear when the screen lit up. Yawning, he went back into the messaging app, getting a reply almost instantly.

**R: thank god**

Maybe the kid was slowly falling asleep, that's why it took him so long. Jack let out another long yawn as he typed his next few messages.

_J: you better not fall asleep on me here_  
_J: and don't accuse me of waking you up_  
_J: you wrote me back so it's your fault_

**R: I'm too tired to argue with you**  
**R: goodnight**

_J: wow_  
_J: I'm gonna kick your ass tomorrow_  
_J: you better watch out_

**R: really?**

_J: cupcake_  
_J: I rarely do asskicking nowadays_  
_J: there's barely anyone that wants to start beef with me_  
_J: but if it's something you want then hmu_

**R: no thanks**

_J: aw :( you were getting my hopes up_  
_J: also weren't you going back to sleep just now?_  
_J: or did I make you change your mind? ;)_

**R: I just caught a mild case of sickness called "not being able to fall asleep" from a certain person that woke me up**  
**R: so there's the answer to your question**

_J: last time I checked it wasn't contagious_  
_J: maybe you're just missing some vitamin me_

Jack chuckled at the message, yawning afterwards. Okay, why was he getting tired all of a sudden?

**R: you're weird**

_J: at least I'm not a nerd_

**R: for the last time, it's geek**  
**R: and how else would you know about Navi if you weren't one too?**  
**R: boom, you've been exposed**

_J: did you just..._  
_J: okay I take back everything I said earlier_  
_J: you're getting your ass kicked_

Jack hit send, watching as the screen slowly faded to black as he waited for Rhys' message. But he closed his eyes once and eventually fell asleep, the phone falling out of his hands and a content smile spread across his face.

He woke up the next morning, of course, feeling like a shit. The text messages from Rhys didn't change his mood, that's impossible. They just made it slightly better.

**R: I'm pretty sure if I skip 4th and 5th period we won't see each other all day**  
**R: you know what, I might as well do that**  
**R: also I can't believe you fell asleep first**  
**R: like I'm not surprised, just disappointed**

Jack got out of his bed, taking the phone with him as he made his way to the kitchen, making a simple sandwich for breakfast. He sat behind the table, loudly chewing at the sandwich because why couldn't he? There was no one there to judge him, his mother already on her way to work. He unlocked the phone, typing away with the sandwich in between his teeth.

_J: not my fault, I need my beauty sleep_

**R: says the guy that woke me up at 2 am**

_J: you're not gonna drop that are you_  
_J: it was an ice-breaker_  
_J: it worked_

**R: excuse me?**

_J: you're excused_

**R: oh my god**  
**R: I can't believe you just did that**

_J: you better believe_  
_J: also you can't avoid me forever_  
_J: I live closer to the school_  
_J: and I know where your locker is_  
_J: there's no chance you won't need it all day_  
_J: I also know where you live_  
_J: wait hold on that sounds kinda creepy_

**R: you think?**  
**R: I might as well hide in the basement**

_J: you won't_

**R: how do you know that?**

_J: I just know, cupcake_  
_J: now if you'll excuse me, I need to do my morning beauty routine_

**R: you are excused**

_J: that's not funny_

**R: it wasn't funny the first time**

Jack rolled his eyes, putting the plate into the dishwasher before going back into his room to get ready for the day.

When he arrived at school, his friends were at their usual spot, waiting for him so they could hang out before the first period. Of course, that spot was near Rhys' locker, so it was like killing two birds with one stone.

Jack stared at the locker, half-listening to his friends' conversation as he waited for Rhys. "So, have you heard the news?"

"What news?" He heard Wilhelm ask, Nisha quickly adding, "Miss Hill got a concussion. She's going to be out for a good amount of time. I don't know the details, but I'm pretty sure I have to thank Tina for not living in a nightmare every Tuesday from now on."

"Wasn't me." Tina suddenly appeared in the middle of the trio, startling even Jack.

"Tina, what are you doing?" Nisha asked the girl, who seemed to be in a staring contest with Jack. Okay, more like "I know something and you don't" kind of contest, which honestly, Jack was losing at. However, it was a familiar figure in the background that caught his attention, Tina following his gaze with a knowing smile on her face. "I'd hit that."

"What?" Jack asked, more aggressively than he intended to. He could see the tiny girl's smirk only grow wider at his reaction, her eyebrows raising up and down in a teasing manner, "You would, too, wouldn't you?"

Jack narrowed his eyes at the girl, obviously annoyed. But she wouldn't stop. If there weren't any corners on her mouth, her smile would probably go all around her face. And okay, Jack really just wanted to push the girl away, especially when Rhys noticed and oh god, he was coming towards them.

"Tina."

"Reeeeeze." Tina dragged the e for a while, Rhys raising one eyebrow.

"Jack."

"Cupcake."

It was too late when Jack realised what was happening, Tina already rolling on the ground, laughing like a psychopath. Jack slapped himself across his forehead, letting out a long groan. And wait, was that and actual blush on Rhys' cheeks? Yeah, this situation was getting seriously out of hand and if it weren't for his friends, it would've been even worse. "Tina, cut it off. Go annoy someone else."

"I will be back! You won't escape the wrath of Tiny Tina's knowing eye, Jack!" Tina yelled down the hallway, going who knows where. At least she was gone.

"For the record, I blame that on the 4 hours of sleep I got last night." Jack tried to lighten up the mood, despite his already shitty one. But the retreating back of Rhys was the only answer Jack got. Honestly, he needed to get out of the hole he dug himself into, and he needed to do it fast.

Hey, maybe he could dig one for Tina and bury her there so she won't bring up whatever the hell that was ever again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay guys hear me out on this
> 
> Rhys as Link  
> AI!Jack as Navi
> 
> Because honestly Jack is as useless as Navi, okay.


	4. Chapter 4

Rhys was glad Jack didn't kick his ass at school that day. Honestly, he didn't know if Jack was joking or not, but he was more than happy to know it was just his sense of humour. But it wasn't the same as the nicknames. Rhys has occasionally heard Jack call someone else "pumpkin", "sugar" or even "sweetcheeks", but for some reason Jack referred to Rhys only as "Rhysie" or "cupcake", which unsettled him.

And okay, maybe he liked the nicknames (he really did), but it didn't exactly help him with the crush he had on Jack, which was getting worse with each time the two were together, either alone or with Jack's friends.

It was around the beginning of October when Jack invited him over, the two playing video games well into the morning. Rhys found out that Jack indeed was as big of a geek as Rhys, the guy had a whole collection of Zelda games. The two had a few rounds of Tekken, Rhys obviously winning because he's played the games since he was a 6.

Rhys found it easier to talk to Jack, or even be around Jack. Maybe it was because Jack wanted to get to know him, so the two were together almost every other day. Sasha thought it was a good progress, that it might lead to something else but of course, Rhys was in denial. Said that they haven't even seen the guy yet and that they jumped to conclusions. That's how he got himself into the situation of taking a photo of Jack without him knowing, one of Fiona's great ideas. It was either that or her taking a bus to the town to meet the guy and possibly telling him about Rhys' feelings.

The photo turned out great! Or at least Rhys thought so. He ended up sending it to the girls the same day as he took it, thankful that Lady Luck was on his side that day and Jack didn't find out. He didn't like doing things like that, and he felt really shitty afterwards.

The girls' reactions were pretty positive, they said that the two of them would be a cute couple. Yeah, like that would ever happen. Rhys was too much of a coward to confess and Jack was... Jack. It would never work out and Jack said it himself, he wants to be friends with Rhys. Which meant nothing more, nothing less.

"Have you signed up for the sports day yet?"

"Huh?" Rhys looked dumbly at the boy next to him, realizing that they've been standing in front of the poster wall for quite a while now. He noticed the worry in Jack's expression, something he's caught on in the month they've been friends, "The sports day. Next week. Come on, cupcake. You have a really high chance at winning the long jump with those nice long legs of yours. Of course, if Janey hasn't signed up yet."

Did he hear that right? Nice long legs? Yeah okay, he was definitely dreaming. "Oh good, she hasn't. So, you up for it?"

"Uh, sure." Rhys said while recovering from Jack's comment about his legs. He really had to stop taking everything Jack said to him as a compliment, it only added fuel to the flames of his highschool crush. He watched as Jack wrote Rhys' name under the line for the long- jump, and Jack's name under the one for the long-distance run. "You're gonna be there, too?"

"Duh, have you seen these muscles?" Jack waved his hand over to his legs, showing off. Rhys couldn't help noticing the way Jack set the next few words, "And there's no way anyone's gonna beat me. Unless you want to test my theory?"

Rhys also noticed something else. "Jack."

"Hmm?"

"Your fly is open."

"Huh, when did that happen. Also, why are you looking at my junk?" Of course Jack would accuse him of such thing, without actually making the effort of closing it back. Rhys let out a long sigh, "It's only weird if you make it weird. Now please, do something about it."

"What if I don't want to."

"Jack."

"Rhysie."

Rhys noticed that people looked at them weird. Even though Rhys had a crush on Jack, it didn't mean he wanted to be around him 24/7, and especially not in a situation like this one. "Uh, I need to go."

"Go where?"

"Everywhere you don't." Goddammit, he really wanted to say home, but the words just slipped out of his mouth. And then Jack pouted at him and god fucking hell he needed Jesus. He also needed to get out of there.

And that's exactly what he did.

Until Athena stopped him just outside of the parking lot. "You and Jack."

"What?"

"What has he done this time? Did he threaten you? Is he blackmailing you? Did he poison you? Did he cut-" She asked all too fast for Rhys to actually pay attention to the rest of the questions. "Actually, he threatened me once, but I'm pretty sure that was a joke."

"He hasn't.. what."

"Yeah."

"Rhys, this isn't good. I think he's planning something. Last year there was this girl, she was all over him, I think her name was Juliet. It was around this time of the year. Jack invited her over and the next day she was gone. Moved away or something. It definitely has to do with Jack."

"Are you sure?" Rhys asked her, feeling uneasy about the tone of her voice as she spoke.

"I'm as sure about that as I'm about everything I've ever said. Avoid him at all costs, you do not want to end up as that girl."

Jack wondered why was Athena bothering Rhys all of a sudden, watching the two from afar. Him and Athena weren't at the best of terms, not after Tim left the school. He knew just how much Athena and Janey meant to Tim, and sometimes he wondered if things would've been different if they didn't fight.

But that didn't matter now. What mattered was that Rhys wasn't answering any of his texts. He's been trying to contact him for the past two hours, even ignoring his homework that's been sitting on his desk since he got home.

_J: hey_  
_J: when are you going to be at school on Tuesday?_  
_J: I heard there's going to be free cupcakes for the contestants_  
_J: ;) ;) ;) ;) ;)_

That was sent 2 hours ago. No "read", no reply, nothing. So he texted him again.

_J: Rhys_  
_J: Rhysie_  
_J: is this about what happened at school?_  
_J: please don't give me the silent treatment_  
_J: I won't do it ever again_  
_J: I promise_

Not a single text from the boy, despite Jack waiting quite a while between his texts.

_J: Rhys_  
_J: if you don't respond in the next ten minutes I'll call your mom_  
_J: what's your mom's number?_  
_J: okay I was joking about that_  
_J: your mom is kinda scary_  
_J: but she's cool_  
_J: not as cool as you though_

Jack frowned at the phone, hoping that maybe if it saw his face it would magically make Rhys write him back.

_J: hey_  
_J: did you see that?_  
_J: I just complimented you_  
_J: I don't do that everyday_

Jack put the phone on the desk, deciding that he should at least start with his homework since there wasn't anything he could do. Of course, he actually didn't do any of it, since this wa accounting and he understood exactly 0% of what was in the book.

_J: come on I'm bored and I don't want to do this homework_  
_J: Rhys_  
_J: Rhys_  
_J: Rhys_  
_J: Rhys_  
_J: Rhysie_  
_J: hey_  
_J: Rhysie_  
_J: did I ever tell you how much I love_  
_J: pretzels?_  
_J: I fucking love pretzels_

Jack was about to type a really long message about pretzels when his phone buzzed in his hands and he almost got a heart attack.... from excitement.

Rhys wrote him back.

**R: god you're depressing**

_J: RHYS_  
_J: RHYS_  
_J: OH MY GOD_  
_J: HEY_  
_J: HI_  
_J: RHYS_

**R: I was sleeping**

_J: oh_  
_J: wait who sleeps at 5 pm_

**R: I was tired**

_J: alright_  
_J: so, wanna hang out?_

**R: sorry I can't**

_J: :(_  
_J: what about tomorrow_

Jack waited for a text back for a while. Well, not a while. Half an hour actually.

**R: Jack I don't think we should be friends**

_J: what?_  
_J: why?_  
_J: where did you get that idea?_  
_J: Rhys_  
_J: come on_  
_J: answer me_

**R: I'm sorry**

_J: Rhys come on_  
_J: what happened_  
_J: you can't just do that out of the blue_  
_J: did I do something?_  
_J: just tell me and I'll fix it_  
_J: please don't ignore me_  
_J: Rhys_

Jack waited for any kind of answer, but eventually he got annoyed by Rhys' silence.

_J: okay you know what?_  
_J: if you want to be a drama queen then I'm not going to stand in your way_  
_J: have fun without me_

Jack didn't really mean for the messages to sound like that, he was... angry, to put it into perspective. Everything was going great, the two of them were growing closer and now this happened? And Jack didn't even know why. He knew he must've fucked up somewhere along the way, he always did, but this time he didn't know when he did so. It was even worse when Rhys didn't want to tell him.

The next day he showed the messages to Nisha, who he called over to his house. After all, she was an expert in these kinds of things. "So, what do you think?"

"I don't know why but this reminds me of what happened last year with Juliet." Nisha answered, looking over the texts one more time. Beside her, Jack let out a fake laugh, "Ha ha, very funny."

She threw the phone at him, kicking her feet up on the couch and over Jack's legs, "No, I'm not saying it in the "Nisha, wanna have a long-distance relationship with me? I'm conveniently moving to Germany tomorrow and I thought we could try this out" way. I mean it in the "someone at school has a loud mouth and now I think you're a creep" way. So either you two talk it out or just do your own thing, I guess."

"Talk it out? He wouldn't answer any of my texts. How am I supposed to just talk to him if he keeps ignoring me?"

"The same way you did before. You'll find a way, Jack. You always do." Nisha winked at him. Yeah, he was going to find a way to make Rhys talk to him. And then they'll be best friends forever. And they'll live happily ever after.

Wait why did that sound familiar.

Jack pushed Nisha's legs away as an idea suddenly popped in his head. If Rhys didn't want to talk face to face, text to text, or over a phone call, then Jack had to do it the old fashioned way. He grabbed a pen and a piece of paper and began writing something he thought he'd never write in his life. An apology letter.

"Do you think a roses are red poem is too much? Should I scrap the whole thing and write it again?" Jack asked Nisha, folding the letter in half. He was going to throw it into Rhys' locker on Monday, but he needed Nisha's reassurance that it didn't look like a 5-year old wrote it.

"Give me that," she snatched the letter from his hands, her eyes going over the words as she read aloud, "Dear Rhys, I don't know what I did to you, if I hurt you in any way or if it's something you don't like about me, but I want you to know that I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to be an asshole about the zipper thing at school if that's the reason you're mad at me. It's probably not. You're a great guy and I think we should talk. To show you how truly sorry I am, I wrote you a few poems.

I'm sorry for what I've done  
If it's not you then I don't need anyone  
You'll always be my number one.

Roses are red  
Violets are blue  
Why did you leave me Rhys  
What did I do?

You're great  
You're amazing  
I'm sad  
Please don't ignore me."

"Well if this doesn't make him talk to you then I don't know what will." Nisha answered after a few moments of silence, trying to hide her smile with her hand. She rarely did that, but Jack already knew it meant that she knew something he didn't and she wasn't going to let him in on the secret. Either way, it was enough of an approval for Jack.

And so on Monday, just after the last period ended, Jack ran out of the classroom as fast as he could so he'd reach Rhys' locker before the boy. He felt anxious the whole day, especially when he saw Rhys during 4th and 5th period. He didn't even notice Jack, no "Hi.", no smile, not even that half-curious look to see if Jack was watching him.

It was bad, and it drove Jack crazy because he didn't know why Rhys just all of a sudden didn't want to be his friend. It's like, he should just forget all those times they were together. All that effort he put into making Rhys notice him. Hell, there wasn't anyone else that would make him this mad for ignoring him. He usually wouldn't mind, having the attention from someone else if he wanted to. But Rhys? God, it was the only attention Jack craved at this point.

He didn't know why he acted this way around Rhys. Maybe it had to do with Rhys being new in his circle of friends, and Jack wanted to impress him. And that's all he did for the past month. Everywhere they went, everything they did, he'd do his best to show off just so he could earn a smile or two from the boy. It was something so simple, yet it made him feel all warm and happy inside.

And he missed that so much. That's why he wanted to know why Rhys would do such thing to him, that's why he shoved the piece of paper into the locker and walked away far enough so Rhys couldn't spot him. He waited for the boy to get to the locker, read the letter and.. put it into his bag. And here he was hoping that maybe something more would happen. He felt pathetic.

Rhys read the words over and over again, his emotions all over the place. It was the thought of Jack not surviving even the weekend without him that made him feel like he was on cloud nine, but then it was Athena's words that made him all gloomy. How Jack was just using him, that he didn't care about him and that there would never be anything more between the two of them.

He felt so bad at school that day, it was probably one of the worst days of his life. Even Vaughn and Yvette pointed out how Jack would throw glances his way in the hallway, and he fought so hard not to give in and look at him.

But now that he had the letter in his hands, it all felt so silly to him. He thought about saying that everything was okay, that it was just one of those days and eventually everything would get back to normal. But what was normal at this point? Rhys bottling up his emotions, hoping that he won't burst open one day when he's around Jack? That wasn't happening and for once he was glad the fear of rejection forced him to stay away from that situation.

And that's how he got himself through the next day, ignoring Jack as he readied himself for the sports day, specifically the long jump... which Jack signed him for. Rhys thought about not doing it, but Mr. Tassiter was "ecstatic" that at least a few of his students were decent enough to sign up. And besides, Janey signed up too so he wanted to see how good she was compared to him. It's not like Rhys wasn't familiar with the jump, he liked doing it and Jack was right about the advantage he'd have with his legs. He just didn't think he'd be that good at it.

"You ready?" Janey asked, sitting beside him on one of the benches. She seemed happy about having Rhys as a competition, not a lot of people wanted to go against her in the jump. Rhys reluctantly nodded, waiting for the teacher to call his name.

"I should warn you, try not to do that." She said as they watched a freshman fall on his ass after the jump. "Not only does it hurt, but you'll end up with your hands behind you which automatically means that your distance sucks."

"I'll keep that in mind, thanks." Rhys remarked as he stood up from the bench and walked over to the starting line. The students paid good attention to his jump, something he didn't expect because of course, no one really cares about these things nowadays. His mind went completely blank as he began running, his legs pushing him from the ground. And hey, he managed not to fall on his ass. Neat.

In the end he ended on the 2nd place, right after Janey. He didn't mind though, Janey deserved it more because she's trained since she was a little kid. The two of them watched as Athena competed in the discus throw, Nisha and Yvette played volleyball along with other girls, and Tina surprisingly winning the 100m run. That girl had some fast legs.

The last one was the long-distance run and Rhys wondered why he hasn't seen Jack that day, part of him glad but the other one a bit disappointed. Maybe Jack decided not to show up because he had other, more important things to do with other, cooler people.

Or maybe not.

It was the confidence with which Jack came towards the starting line that surprised Rhys. Jack didn't even acknowledge him, he came there to win. What exactly he wanted to win, Rhys didn't know, since they wouldn't exactly get any prizes for this. It was a friendly competition between the students.

Oh and Wilhelm was there, too. It seemed like the two were trying to outrun each other throughtout the whole run, always in the front. They were running the last lap when Wilhelm seemed to get slower, Jack taking his chance to get ahead of the whole group. Unsurprisingly, he won with a 4 second lead, Wilhelm finishing right after him. The crowd went wild, or at least as wild as you'd expect from 15-19 years old students.

The students then waited for the principal to give her speech about how thankful she was to all the participants and other things, Rhys couldn't bother listening. He made the mistake of looking away from her and into the crowd on the opposite of him, and it was those green and blue eyes that made him hold his breath for mere seconds, the earlier confidence replaced by a frown. Rhys couldn't tear his eyes away, but he knew if he didn't he'd be stuck on that spot until Jack would look away. He took a sharp breath, disappearing into the crowd until he was well out of sight. He didn't want to face Jack, not now, not ever. How could he? He was scared that he'd end up like that girl, Juliet. He didn't want to leave this school, not after he already made friends here.

The students quickly scattered out of the school once the principal finished her speech, Rhys stuck in the middle of the chaos. He hated how small he felt in huge crowds, desperate to get away from all of these people.

Through the usual push and shove, he didn't notice the hand on his cybernetic arm until he was pulled to the side. The back of Jack's head was all Rhys saw before he was pushed in front of the boy, shoved through the crowd and back towards the bleachers. God, his heart was beating so fast, he thought it would jump out of his chest. The hands on his shoulders weren't as gentle as when Jack push him two weeks out of the school so they wouldn't miss the bus to Rhys' place. They weren't as gentle as when Jack would take a book out of Rhys', just to get attention from him. They were harsh, impatient, and held Rhys' shoulders so tight it almost hurt.

Jack was angry.

"Talk." Jack demanded, his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed at Rhys. But Rhys couldn't talk, too scared that he'll say the wrong thing, his mind racing with thoughts of different scenarios of how this could all go wrong if he just opened his mouth.

"Rhys." He called out to him, but Rhys couldn't bring himself to do it. And Jack was quickly losing his patience with each silent second. "Geez, kid. Didn't know you had it in you. I fucking apologized, I even wrote you a fucking letter and you won't acknowledge any of that. You're driving me crazy here, you know that? What did I fucking do to you to deserve this kind of treatment, huh?"

Rhys silently watched as Jack angrily let out his thoughts, his frown deepening when Rhys just stood there. "Say something, dammit!"

"What do you want me to say? The truth?"

"For fucking example!"

Rhys sighed heavily, running his hand through his hair before he began pouring his heart out, "I don't talk to you because I'm scared that if I opened my mouth once, I'll tell you everything I've been bottling up inside since I met you. I'm scared that once I say the things I have in my mind, you'll just forget about me. I'm scared of being used, not cared for and seen as a burden. Ever since that first day I've been trying to push you away so I wouldn't get hurt in the end, because god curse the fucking statistics of highschool relationships. Do you even know how many relationships end after people get out of school? 7 out of fucking 10! And I didn't need that. Up until now I was fucking glad I didn't need to rely on anyone else, didn't have the other half in my life. But here you come, waltzing into my life with that handsome face, that stupid smile I can't ever get out of my mind, looking at me with those mismatched eyes like I'm the most precious thing in the world. I tried my hardest to push my feelings away, but you're a persistent asshole that had to get under my skin for no apparent reason! And god, do you know how heartbreaking it was when I heard you say the word friend? You don't even know how many times I wanted to hide in my bed and rip out my own heart because it would beat so hard whenever I thought about you. And those stupid nicknames? Not even my own mom ever called me "Rhysie". You may not see it Jack, but it's the little things you did that turned this stupid fucking crush into full-on falling in love."

Rhys couldn't believe that he just did what he did. He shut his mouth with his hand, silently praying that he did not say that to Jack, and that Jack didn't really have that shocked expression on his face. But he did, and he felt like passing out.

"I have to go." Rhys mumbled before quickly walking away. It kind of hurt when Jack didn't stop him, but what else should expect. He knew he should've been ready for any kind of reaction, so why did it hurt so much?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh god how did I manage to fit so much into this chapter? I actually wanted to keep writing but guess I'll have to fit the aftermath of Rhys' love apocalypse into the next one.
> 
> Also I want to thank you all for the support this story has gotten so far! Whether it's the kudos or the comments, I really appreciate it :D
> 
> We have one last chapter left and I'm so excited for it. It's gonna be a big mess of emotions, but hopefully they won't be all over the place this time.


	5. Chapter 5

That wasn't exactly what Jack was expecting. Honestly, he hasn't even thought about the possibility that Rhys was in love with him. But it did answer most of his questions. It just didn't make anything easier.

What was he supposed to do? Just ignore that detail? Despite what Rhys told him, Jack still didn't want to cut him out of his life. He liked Rhys, a lot, and he's already put so much effort into making their friendship a reality, he wasn't going to give up now. What he needed, however, was relationship advice from the relationship expert, Nisha.

He grabbed his phone from somewhere on his bed, tapping on the messaging app and instantly writing to the girl.

 _J: hey_  
_J: you did good today_  
_J: at the game I mean_

After several minutes of waiting, the phone finally beeped, informing him of a new message.

**N: what do you want Jack? I'm talking to Juliet right now so make it quick**

_J: wait like on skype?_  
_J: add me to the group_  
_J: please_

Jack joined their call not too long after, "I need your help." being the first thing he said. Nisha rolled her eyes, remarking, "Wouldn't be the first time."

"Hi Jack!" Juliet let out, happily waving into the camera. Jack scoffed, faking hurt in his voice, "Hey yourself, possible love interest stealer!"

"Jack." Nisha warned, but the other girl didn't mind, instead giggling at the joke. "Yeah yeah, I know. Still we're not changing the topic." Jack said, the two girls asking in unison, "Why?"

"Rhys said he loves me."

"Well, people say that a lot." Nisha chuckled, to which Jack could only slap his hand across his forehead in annoyance, "I mean he confessed. He told me it was a crush at first but then he full on fell in love."

"I thought it was the other way around." Nisha thought out aloud. "Who's Rhys??" Juliet asked out of nowhere, confused about who and what they were talking about. Jack wanted to answer, but Nisha beat him to it, "The guy I told you about? You know, Jack going all soft on him?"

"Soft? What the hell, Nisha? And what do you mean the other way around?"

"Don't deny it, asshole. Ever since he came to our school, I haven't seen you pick on that Pickle kid once." She accused him, Jack quickly thinking of any kind of argument, "That's because I never see him at school!"

"Because all you see is Rhys! Jack, you don't notice the signs, but literally everyone around you does." When Jack didn't say anything, Nisha took it as a cue to continue, "You did everything you could to make the kid pay attention to you, you said that yourself. When you invited him to hang out with us, you completely forgot about me and Wilhelm. You call him nice nicknames, I admit you do that to other people but I can clearly see the way you smile at him when you notice how flustered he gets. And the stupid letter? The whole time I read that I thought he broke up with you! Then there's the messages you showed me. We've been friends for a long time, but never once did you send me over 30 messages in two hours when I didn't reply back. You can't last a day without the kid, how in the fuck do you think you're gonna last more than that if you don't confess, too?

"Confess?" Jack almost choked at the word, eyes going wider than his mouth.

"Jack... do you like Rhys?" Nisha asked him as straightforward as she could. Jack rolled his eyes before he gave her the answer, "Of course I like him, who wouldn't?"

"She means if you like like him." Juliet clarified. Jack blinked once, twice, thinking if he heard that right. Him and Rhys? As in the two of them being a couple? "I... I haven't thought of us that way actually."

"Well, that's what you should do. Think. Because you don't tend to do that around Rhys." Once again, Jack rolled his eyes at the comment. The call soon ended afterwards, with Jack staring at his phone, specifically the last message he's sent to Rhys.

J: have fun without me

The thought of that made Jack feel indescribable pain in his body. Rhys... without him. Jack spent so much time trying to get the boy's attention, he didn't even realize he was falling for him. It never occured to him how much he changed when he was around Rhys. That those moments they shared together were more than ordinary to both of them. Of course Jack wouldn't notice the unusual amount of affection he gave to the boy, he rarely ever thought about what he did and he avoided these things because he didn't want to be left behind again.

"God, I'm an idiot." He said to himself, the phone falling out of his hands and onto his face. He quickly grabbed it, thankful that he didn't accidentally send anything to Rhys. He was scared, but most of all, lost. He wanted to text him so badly, but what would he say? "Hey, how are you doing after you confessed your love to me and I stood there like an idiot and let you leave?" Nah, that wasn't happening.

And besides, would Rhys even want him after that fiasco? Would Jack even be able to make Rhys happy? Would it even work between the two of them? All these questions started eating away at Jack, and that's exactly why he never wanted to deal with these things. He knew just how bad he was at dealing with emotions. But he also knew that if he didn't do something, his chances with Rhys were going to be nonexistent soon.

That's why he decided that he'd push all the thoughts away until tomorrow, when the two of them would have a talk. A real talk, unlike the one that occured not too long ago.

 

* * *

 

 

Except they didn't talk. Rhys didn't come to school that day, and no one knew why. Not even Mr. Tassiter, or at least it looked like it. And goddamn was Jack frustrated when the stupid teacher wouldn't tell him anything. He accidentally hit his hand against the desk in frustration, which is why he was now sitting in detention class, bored out of his mind while Mrs. West went over the exams from last week. The minutes seemed to drag on forever, and Jack thought that he'd actually die of boredom before he could get to talk to Rhys. It was now past 4 and he had another hour in front of him.

"You seem... distracted." Mrs. West suddenly said without taking her eyes from the papers, marking something with a red pen. Jack scoffed, looking away from the clock "Impossible, there's nothing here that would cure my boredom."

"I don't mean it like that. You're distracted by someone." She finally looked at him, lifting a paper and showing the name on it to Jack.

Rhys.

"You too? Give me a break. I already know I f-- did the wrong thing. I don't need to be reminded by a teacher, too." Jack quickly corrected himself, the teacher shaking her head as she continued marking other papers, "I'm not trying to be invasive. I'm just pointing out what I've noticed. You took a liking to Rhys, Jack. It's an improvement."

"Improvement.. you say it like just because I like him every other problem in my life will fix itself."

"You're only hearing what you want to hear. I never said that. But know this, if it's lasted this long, maybe he can be a good start towards a life without problems." She said, Jack raising his eyebrow in suspision, "So what you're saying is that I should fix what we had in the first place and then maybe something will happen?"

The teacher sighed heavily, dropping the pen on the desk and glanced towards Jack, admitting, "No. I'm saying you should man up, talk to him, get together and live happily ever after. You two are literally tearing the teachers apart, we were placing bets and I want to win those 40 dollars from Tassiter."

Jack squinted his eyes at her, maybe he could get something out of this, "So if I tell you that I'll go to his house right after school, I can get out of here early?"

"I'm a teacher, Jack, not an angel." She laughed, going back to the exams once again. Jack only pouted at her continued silence. The two of them waited for another hour before Jack rushed out of the classroom, not at all ignoring the words of support from the teacher, "You better get him back! I didn't give up my money for nothing!"

The storm outside was perfect for how Rhys felt. The lightnings lit up his room, but it was only a temporary source of light in the darkness. And that was perfectly okay with Rhys, he didn't need the light to remind him of how much of a mess he was. It hit him hard, the look Jack gave him when Rhys poured his heart right then and there. His mind would go over everything he said, and it would turn that look of shock into one of disgust and hate.

Rhys felt broken afterwards. Literally and figuratively. Once he got home that day, tears threatening to spill from his eyes, his arm started malfunctioning, the pain worse than he's remembered from his childhood. It was so unbearable, he practically had to tear the arm out. The day afterwards was a mess of appointments at the doctor's, and he wouldn't have his arm until the next week. He didn't mind, it used to be worse when he was a child and was still getting used to trying different arms. But even though he's lived without a real right arm his whole life, it still felt strange having this empty space at his side.

He laid there on his bed, raindrops hitting the roof of the house. Headphones in his ears, he quietly mumbled the lyrics to a song by his favorite band, fingers hitting the bed in the beat. It was almost six in the evening, but the storm outside made it seem like it was well past nine.

Rhys rubbed at his eyes, feeling like he'll certainly fall asleep any time soon. However, he made no effort to change his clothes. He grabbed the phone from his side, the light blinding him for a second before he changed the song. He knew that he was acting like a drama queen, just like Jack told him, that lying on his bed and moping wouldn't do him any good. But he couldn't help feeling like a complete shit. Of course he thought about calling Jack or even texting him, but he didn't want to pry, and he was scared of another rejection.

There was a light knock on the door to his room, followed by light creeping into his room from the hallway. He was turned with his back to the door, but he knew it was his mom by the way she opened the door, "Rhys? There's someone that wants to see you."

"Tell them that I'm sleeping, or that I'm sick... or something."

"I'd love to but I don't think they'd appreciate coming here for nothing." She said. Rhys rolled his eyes, mumbling, "Who cares?"

"Don't be like that and come downstairs." She left the room without another word, leaving the door open for Rhys. He let out a groan, unplugging the headphones from his phone and leaving it on the bedside table. With every step he could hear a creak as he made his way down the stairs, finally arriving in the main hall. He hesitantly opened the front door and, well, he could clearly see why the person wouldn't appreciate Rhys' fake excuses.

"You're all wet." Rhys commented, taking in the sight of a very soaked Jack, who looked more like a lost puppy at that very moment. He briefly looked at Rhys' right arm.. or at least where it was supposed to be. If he had any questions about that, he definitely didn't make the effort of asking them. However, his sarcastic remark didn't help the situation at all, "Yeah, thought it'd be more dramatic."

"Really?" Rhys let out more as a statement, frowning at the boy. He crossed his arms, expecting Jack to get carried away with his humour. What he didn't expect was the slight pout on his face, "No, I didn't catch the last bus and I left my umbrella at home."

Rhys looked at him expectantly, silently wanting to hear why he suddenly decided to walk through half the town on Wednesday evening just to look at Rhys with those stupid puppy eyes. "Can we talk? Inside? Please?"

When Jack didn't get any kind of reaction, he felt pathetic for even thinking Rhys would want to talk to him after what he's done. He was almost on his way to just walk away, shut himself in his room and pretend like none of this happened until it would start eating him up from the inside. What stopped him was the quiet, "Fine." and Rhys moving to the side.

"Mom, we'll be in my room." Rhys shouted, receiving a loud "Okay!" from his mother from somewhere in the house. Jack followed Rhys up the stairs, feeling somewhat anxious. And Jack didn't do anxious. Jack did confident. But this? This was all new to him, a new territory that he was bound to explore sooner or later, he just really wished it was later.

They made their way to Rhys's room, the clothes Jack wore feeling more cold and uncomfortable at this point. Rhys must've picked up on that, because at this point he was deep in his closet, looking for something. "What are you doing?" Jack asked.

"You're soaked, I don't want my carpet to get wet. It takes a while for it to dry." Rhys answered, coming out of the closet with a towel, a black hoodie and grey sweatpants. "Here."

Jack took the clothes, watching Rhys leave the room without another word. He quickly changed his clothes, the soft smell of lavender hitting him as soon as he put on the hoodie. Did all of Rhys's clothes smell like that? Did Rhys smell like that? Honestly, Jack hasn't noticed.

The door opened just as Jack threw the towel over his head, drying his hair as much as he could. He noticed Rhys taking the wet clothes from the room, but not a word was exchanged between the two them. Good, Jack still wasn't sure if he could talk to the boy.

He sat down on Rhys' bed, a content sigh escaping his lips. The boy soon came back into the room, surprised to see Jack see sitting there. Honestly, Rhys didn't know what he should expect from him at this point. Jack patted the bed next to him, waiting for Rhys to take a seat. The two of them sat there in silence, neither knowing what to say.

"I don't-" "I want-" The two began at the same time, their words just barely making any sense before they stopped talking altogether.

"Sorry, go ahead." Rhys said after a second, receiving a surprised look from Jack. "I.. thought about what you said. About being used and forgotten and the other.. thing. Look, I'd never voluntarily use you. I'm not that kind of an asshole. Yes, I may have done some things to some people in the past, but if I knew that it would gain me a reputation of... whatever someone told you, I'd never do those things. You're a great guy, Rhys, and I really did want to get to know you better. Maybe it was because you were a new face around here, I don't know. But honestly? I don't regret any moment I spent with you. I now know what you meant about the nicknames, I didn't realize it meant so much to you."

"It's alright. I didn't mean to get so carried away."

"You and me both, buddy. There's something about you. I can't really put my finger on it, but apparently I spent way too much time with you according to Nisha and I didn't even realize it. For chrissake, I didn't realize a lot of things up until now. I like you Rhys, I really do. But this relationship thing? It's kind of a big deal."

"Oh." Rhys let out, slightly sad that this wasn't going in the direction he was hoping for. He knew he was getting his hopes up for nothing when Jack showed up, that it would never work out in the long run. He was just hurting himself at this point for having that spark of hope.

He looked away from Jack, a small pout slowly creeping its way onto his face. He took a deep breath, but before he could let a word out he felt a hand tug at his, lifting it just slightly above the bed. Rhys looked back at Jack just as their fingers intertwined, the other boy glancing at their hands with a smile. Their eyes met for a brief moment, Rhys shyly looking away. Jack ran his thumb along Rhys' hand, his words just loud enough for Rhys to hear, "But that doesn't mean I don't want to try it out."

"Really? You want to- okay." Rhys asked, still a bit dazed from their hands touching. He felt lightheaded when Jack nodded at him, he thought he was dreaming. His back hit the bed, Jack following soon after. The two of them stared at the ceiling, hand in hand. There were million thoughts running through Rhys' head, but only one through Jack's. He was happy.. with Rhys.

He looked at Rhys, eyes trailing along the lose strands of hair on the side of his face, towards the mismatched eyes. He noticed the light furrow of his eyebrows, but it was there for mere seconds before Rhys blinked his eyes as if something just dawned on him, "Wait, does this mean-"

"That we're dating? Hell to the yeah." Jack finished the sentence, their eyes finally meeting properly.

"Am I dreaming?"

"I dunno, but it'd be a pretty cool dream to have. Dating the one and only Jack Lawrence, the best guy you could possibly ever dream of."

"Okay it's not a dream." Rhys exclaimed, Jack squinting his eyes at the boy as he asked "And how exactly do you know that?"

"Because in my dreams you do less talking and more-" Rhys quickly stopped himself before he'd blurt out any more embarrassing things. Just him saying that he's had a dream or two about Jack is embarrassing enough. But it didn't seem like that was what peaked an interest in him, "More what? Rhys, come on, you're killing me here."

Rhys averted his gaze, trying to think of anything that wouldn't sound.. disturbing, to say the least. However, he could not come up with anything at the spot, so he admitted with a mumble, "Cuddling."

All of a sudden, with just a few quick movements, the two of them now laid fully on the bed, their foreheads against the other, arms and legs as a tangled mess. Jack couldn't keep the smile off his face as he asked, "Like this? Is this okay?"

"Yeah."

They laid there for a while, their noses just barely touching but they could feel each other's breaths. Jack couldn't keep his eyes off of Rhys, studying his face as if it was a masterpiece he barely had the privilege of looking at. And Rhys fought to keep his eyes opened, but he felt content with the warmth inside him, and he soon closed his eyes. The arm that moved him closer towards the other body now rested just behind his head, with Jack's chin on top of it. He was at the edge of drifting into a deep slumber when just a few words from his _boyfriend_ made him smile like an idiot, "This is nice. I like it. We should do it more often."

"Mmhm." He quietly agreed, burying his face deeper into his new favourite "pillow", the faint sound of Jack's heart beating steadily the last thing he heard before he finally gave in.

Jack wondered for a while afterwards. If he as much as hasn't noticed Rhys the first day at school, maybe none of this would've happened. But it wasn't the cybernetic arm that he's noticed, nor the accident that caused the boy to look away from him. It was the eyes that told a story and Jack was curious enough to know it. But here he was, no closer to the truth. He was more than glad to be a part of the story now, even if he was insignificant in the earlier parts of it.

One thing he knew was that Rhys was more than significant in Jack's story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Hey Jack?"
> 
> "Mm?"
> 
> "You forgot to write your name at the end of the letter."
> 
> ***  
> Ahh it's finally over! Honestly, I had so much more planned for this story but since I decided I should fit it into only 5 chapters (kind of a challenge I made for myself), I couldn't put it all in here. But now that it's over, I'm kind of glad. I actually really like how it turned out.
> 
> Also I want to thank you all for all the love and support this story has gotten. I appreciate all of the kudos and comments from you guys. And hey, maybe there will be a sequel to this, someday, probably.. I don't know. It's up to the stars. :D
> 
> Also, there was supposed to be more to this chapter, like how Jack would get sick the next day and would eventually have to confront his mother, but I guess I'll leave that to the possible sequel.


End file.
